Simon Gotch Changes Name, Talks About Release From WWE

Former WWE and Vaudevillains star Simon Gotch announced his new ring name will be Simon Grimm and discussed his release from WWE in an interview with USA Today.

Gotch said his release from the promotion was a mutual agreement.

“They brought it to me and I agreed. It was one of those things where I was unhappy, and they basically felt like the character had run its course. I said I agreed, and they said they wanted to exercise the termination clause in my contract. I agreed with that as well and we went from there. This wasn’t exactly an unwanted thing on my part. I wasn’t happy, and I actually felt that was the best move. In any situation, sometimes if you see the opportunity, you take it.”

Gotch also talked about the cause of his unhappiness with the WWE.

“In any job, sometimes you do things for artistic fulfillment or sometimes you do things for financial fulfillment or because it’s part of your job. For some people, money is absolutely the answer … it’s the financial security they want. I’ve always felt wrestling was more of an art form. I felt at that point I was not wrestling because I loved it. I was wrestling because it was my job and that didn’t sit well with me or make me happy. I can be miserable doing anything and not abusing my body. I wrestle because it makes me happy, because I enjoy it, because I’m passionate about it, because I enjoy the game of mental chess. I enjoy trying to create something out of nothing. It’s an art form where they give us the ring as a canvas and we have to paint the audience a picture that will affect them emotionally. It’s great feeling when you do it well. Looking at the bank account and the checkbook were not the things that were driving me in the first place so I couldn’t really justify that as a reason to keep doing it when I wasn’t expressing myself as I felt like I could.”

Gotch also clarified the online reports about an incident with WWE catering backtage.

"The actual story is that it happened at WrestleMania. I was sitting in catering and the chair I was in was kinda flimsy. I go to shift in it and it just collapses underneath me. Being a ham, my immediate reaction was to demand someone pin me. ‘Someone pin me quick.’ The guy who comes over, I think he works for us. I didn’t realize he was a local technician and was not a WWE technician. He was someone who worked on the set at ‘Mania. He came to help me up and I’m like, ‘Nope, you gotta pin me. C’mon, man.’ And he’s not going along with the bit. He thinks I just fell and he’s trying to help me. I see the bit’s going nowhere so I take the chair and I just kick it off to the side, drop it like a little punt and let it lay where it lands. That was it. I saw the story online, saying that I fell in the chair and made this big scene and was yelling and screaming. No part of that is accurate.”